Pipes and tobaccos 2014 Pipe of the Year
by Vollmer & Nilsson

Bo’s Cobra

This is our first pipe of the year from Sweden, home of many of the finest pipes ever crafted, including those by this year’s artisans, Martin Vollmer and Anders Nilsson.

Half-brothers Vollmer and Nilsson craft pipes together at their workshop in Malmö, a shop always filled with music, friends and a permeating enthusiasm for pipes. Avid pipe smokers since the early ’80s and professional pipemakers since 2004, the team has found worldwide acceptance and admiration in the pipe community, due not only to their friendliness and charm but to their creativity and unflagging adherence to the pursuit of the best smoking pipes possible.

The pipe crafted for P&T’s 2014 Pipe of the Year has a special story behind it. Nilsson writes: “When Bo Nordh passed away and his workshop was emptied, Bo’s best friend Andreas Persson salvaged a shoebox full of rejects and unfinished pipes. Later, he brought the box to us and kindly let us not only look at all the fascinating relics, but also choose one block each, to keep as a memento or perhaps even finish for ourselves. Martin’s fancy was immediately caught by the block in question. Neither of us has seen a finished Bo pipe in this shape, and no one we’ve shown it to has either. After turning the block over and over in his hands, and staring at it for hours on end, Martin finally made an interpretation of the shape. So, is this a lost Bo Nordh shape? We don’t know. Bengt Carlson, who spent quite a lot of time in Bo’s workshop, doesn’t think so—he believes it is just an example of Bo playing around on the disc sander. Since it is too late to ask Bo himself, we’ll probably never know the full truth. Still, it is an intriguing piece of pipe history, and the shape, at least to us, has some sort of Bo flair to it. Regardless of its history, we really like the shape and have come to refer to it as ‘Bo’s Cobra.’”

There are 36 pipes, each individually numbered and stamped with the year, the P&T logo and the Vollmer & Nilsson stamp. Each is individually handmade, so there are minor variations in size.